Taiwan ranks 15th in media freedom: Gallup

WASHINGTON -- Perceived media freedom in Taiwan has been ranked 15th worldwide, with 84 percent of Taiwanese surveyed by Gallup Inc. in 2013 saying the news media in their country have a lot of freedom, according to the results of global surveys released by the U.S.-based pollster.

That compares with 11 percent of respondents who gave a negative answer and 5 percent who said they did not know or declined to answer.

Taiwan's perceived media freedom was ranked significantly higher than that of Japan and South Korea, where only 69 percent and 58 percent of people, respectively, said the news media in their countries had a lot of freedom.

The Netherlands, Finland and Germany were the three countries with the world's highest perceived media freedom in 2013, with 95 percent, 94 percent and 93 percent of people in those countries, respectively, describing their media as free.

In 11th to 14th places were Ireland (87 percent), Canada (87 percent), Paraguay (86 percent) and the United States (85 percent).

According to the surveys conducted across 132 countries, a median of 63 percent of adults polled said the news media in their countries had a lot of freedom, while a median of 26 percent said their media were not free.